Dreaming and acting in the spirit of Martin Luther King

In the Martin Luther King Lecture on 9 October, visiting professor Anthony Bogues called for taking as an example not the dreaming, but the radical Martin Luther King, and addressing the problems of our present time. ‘Action is what makes us stand out as human beings.' Shirley Haasnoot Photos: Peter Valckx In 1963, Reverend Martin Luther King was in a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama. He had been arrested after leading a protest march here against racial segregation. In his cell, he started to write an open letter addressed to his colleagues. These white Christian and Jewish spiritual leaders also disapproved of segregation, but in a newspaper article they called on King to adopt a moderate tone and postpone his demonstrations, strikes and protest marches. Change would take a long time, they thought, and had to be fought for in the courts, not in the streets. 'Freedom must be claimed by the oppressed'.